"The Symbol P denotes a plant poisonous in greater or less degree to man in one or more of its parts at one or more seasons" from The Pocket Guide to Wild Flowers by David McClintock and R.S.R Fitter assisted by Francis Rose. Eleventh Impression 1978. (ISBN 0 00 219363 9). The plants with the Symbol P at the end of the line with their name on it in that book are shown in the following list.

Flora of the British Isles by A.R. Clapham, T.G. Tutin and E.F. Warburg. Cambridge at the University Press 1952. This book details the poisonous parts and toxicity of those poisonous plants native to the UK.

The poisons are the alkaloid solanine and the amorphous glucoside Dulcamarine. Solanine acts narcotically; in large doses it paralyses the central nervous system, without affecting the peripheral nerves or voluntary muscles. It slows the heart and respiration, lessens sensibility, lowers the temperature and causes vertigo and delirium, terminating in death with convulsions. The berries have proved poisonous to a certain degree to children.

Its seeds and roots contain cardiogenic toxins, which cause both severe gastroenteritis and heart palpitations if consumed as food. Native Americans used very small amounts of Aquilegia root as an effective treatment for ulcers. Columbine poisonings may be fatal.

The plant contains cicutoxin, which disrupts the workings of the central nervous system. In humans, cicutoxin rapidly produces symptoms of nausea, emesis and abdominal pain, typically within 60 minutes of ingestion. Poisoning can lead to tremors and seizures. A single bite of the root (which has the highest concentration of cicutoxin) can be sufficient to cause death. One gram of water hemlock per kilogram of weight will kill a sheep and 230 grams is sufficient to kill a horse. Due to the rapid onset of symptoms, treatment is usually unsuccessful.

Belladonna is one of the most toxic plants found in the Western hemisphere. All parts of the plant contain tropane alkaloids. The berries pose the greatest danger to children because they look attractive and have a somewhat sweet taste. The consumption of two to five berries by children and ten to twenty berries by adults can be lethal. The root of the plant is generally the most toxic part, though this can vary from one specimen to another. Ingestion of a single leaf of the plant can be fatal to an adult.

The active agents in Belladonna, atropine, hyoscine (scopolamine), and hyoscyamine, have anticholinergic properties. The symptoms of belladonna poisoning include:- dilated pupils, sensitivity to light, blurred vision, tachycardia, loss of balance, staggering, headache, rash, flushing, dry mouth and throat, slurred speech, urinary retention, constipation, confusion, hallucinations, delirium, and convulsions. In 2009, atropa belladonna that was mistaken for blueberries with six berries ingested by an adult woman was documented to result in severe anticholinergic syndrome. The plant's deadly symptoms are caused by atropine's disruption of the parasympathetic nervous system's ability to regulate non-volitional/subconscious activities such as sweating, breathing, and heart rate. The antidote for belladonna poisoning is physostigmine or pilocarpine, the same as for atropine.

Dog's mercury is highly poisonous. Methylamine (mercurialine) and trimethylamine are thought to be present, together with a volatile oil and saponins. Symptoms of poisoning appear within a few hours; they can include vomiting, pain, gastric and kidney inflammation, and sometimes inflammation of the cheeks and jaw, and drowsiness. Apart from Chenopodium bonus-henricus and some other edible members of the Chenopodiaceae (also known as mercuries), the most similar-looking species is probably Mercurialis annua (annual mercury), which is also thought to be poisonous.

The latex (milky sap) of spurges acts as a deterrent for herbivores as well as a wound healer. As it is under pressure, it runs out from the slightest wound and congeals within a few minutes of contact with the air. Among the component parts are many di- or tri-terpen esters, which can vary in composition according to species, and in some cases the variant may be typical of that species. The terpen ester composition determines how caustic and irritating to the skin it is. In contact with mucous membranes (eyes, nose, mouth) the latex can produce extremely painful inflammation. In experiments with animals it was found that the terpen ester resiniferatoxin had an irritating effect 10,000 to 100,000 times stronger than capsaicin, the "hot" substance found in chili peppers. Several terpen esters are also known to be carcinogenic.

Therefore spurges should be handled with caution. Latex coming in contact with the skin should be washed off immediately and thoroughly. Partially or completely congealed latex is often no longer soluble in water, but can be removed with an emulsion (milk, hand-cream). A physician should be consulted regarding any inflammation of a mucous membrane, especially the eyes, as severe eye damage including possible permanent blindness may result from acute exposure to the sap. It has been noticed, when cutting large succulent spurges in a greenhouse, that vapours from the latex spread and can cause severe irritation to the eyes and air passages several metres away. Precautions, including sufficient ventilation, are required. Small children and domestic pets should be kept from contact with spurges.

Usually contains coniine and is consequently poisonous. It is related to Hemlock and Water-dropwort, and like them, is poisonous, though less so than Hemlock. Poisoning from Fool's Parsley showed symptoms of heat in the mouth and throat and a post-mortem examination showed redness of the lining membrane of the gullet and windpipe and slight congestion of the duodenum and stomach. Since some toxins are destroyed by drying, hay containing the plant is not poisonous.

Due to the presence of the cardiac glycoside digitoxin, the leaves, flowers and seeds of this plant are all poisonous to humans and some animals, and can be fatal if eaten.The main toxins in Digitalis are the two chemically similar cardiac glycosides: digitoxin and digoxin. Like other cardiac glycosides, the Digitalis toxins exert their effects by inhibiting the ATPase activity of a complex of transmembrane proteins that form the sodium potassium ATPase pump, (Na+/K+-ATPase). Inhibition of the Na+/K+-ATPase in turn causes a rise not only in intracellular Na+, but also in calcium, which in turn results in increased force of myocardial muscle contractions. In other words, at precisely the right dosage, Digitalis toxin can cause the heart to beat more strongly. However, digitoxin, digoxin and several other cardiac glycosides, such as ouabain, are known to have steep dose-response curves, i.e. minute increases in the dosage of these drugs can make the difference between an ineffective dose and a fatal one.

Symptoms of Digitalis poisoning include a low pulse rate, nausea, vomiting, and uncoordinated contractions of different parts of the heart leading to cardiac arrest and finally death.

Fatal

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Wikipedia.org provides a great deal of information about the poison chemicals in the plants detailed in this page.

All plant parts are poisonous. Conium contains the piperidine alkaloids coniine, N-methylconiine, conhydrine, pseudoconhydrine and γ-coniceine (or g-coniceïne), which is the precursor of the other hemlock alkaloids.The most important and toxic of these is coniine, which has a chemical structure similar to nicotine. Coniine is a neurotoxin, which disrupts the workings of the central nervous system and is toxic to humans and all classes of livestock. Ingestion in any quantity can result in respiratory collapse and death. Coniine causes death by blocking the neuromuscular junction in a manner similar to curare; this results in an ascending muscular paralysis with eventual paralysis of the respiratory muscles which results in death due to lack of oxygen to the heart and brain. Death can easily be prevented by artificial ventilation until the effects have worn off 48–72 hours later. For an adult the ingestion of more than 100 mg of coniine (approximately 6 to 8 fresh leaves, or a smaller dose of the seeds or root) may result in fatality.

0.03-0.15% tropane alkaloids (hyoscyamine, hyoscine = scopolamine), flavonol glycosides (quercitin, rutin, kaempferol), small amounts of volatile amines (choline, methylpyrroline, pyridine). have been found in the foliage and seeds of the plant. Common effects of henbane ingestion in humans include hallucinations, dilated pupils, restlessness, and flushed skin. Less common symptoms such as tachycardia, convulsions, vomiting, hypertension, hyperpyrexia and ataxia have all been noted.Henbane can be toxic, even fatal, to animals in low doses.Children have been poisoned by eating the seeds.

It contains the same oxalates as found in Arum italicum. These needle-shaped crystals can irritate the skin, mouth, tongue, and throat, resulting in throat swelling, breathing difficulties, burning pain, and stomach upset.

Though the orange berries are quite attractive, their acrid taste and the tingling in the mouth which begins quite quickly, mean that large amounts are rarely ingested and serious harm is unusual.

The plant is said to be one of the most common causes of accidental plant poisoning based on attendance at hospital A & E departments though this may be because the irritation of the tongue and mouth is more likely to result in hospital attendance than a simple stomach upset from, say, eating a daffodil bulb thinking it to be an onion.

It is poisonous in all its parts which is due to the presence of the alkaloid colchicine. This molecule, the structure of which has been determined has the IUPAC name: N-((7S)-5,6,7,9-tetrahydro-1,2,3,10-tetramethoxy-9-oxobenzo(a)heptalen-7-yl)- acetamide

The fruit is a bright red berry. Daphnetoxin present in the berries and twigs is very poisonous for people, though fruit-eating birds like thrushes are immune and eat the berries, dispersing the seeds in their droppings. Handling the fresh twigs can cause rashes and eczema in sensitive individuals.

All species are highly poisonous and have often proved fatal owing to the presense of the powerful and deadly alkaloid aconitin and of other associated alkaloids. Aconitim napellus has long been officinal as a narcotic and analgesic.

The fruits of some species are mildly poisonous to humans. Privet is one of several plants which are poisonous to horses. Privet pollen is known to cause asthma and eczema in sufferers. 36% of respondents to a survey of gardeners in the UK said that that privet would put them off buying a property.

Poisonous bright pink fruit, which is attractive to children, but is harmful, since it is strongly emetic and purgative: it has proved fatal to sheep. The bark, leaves and fruit are all injurious, and no animal but the goat will browse upon them

All the hellebores have a burning taste and are highly poisonous owing to the presence of the glycosides helleborin and helleborein. Both Helleborus viridis and Helleborus foetidus were formerly officinal as violent cathartics and emetics, but their use has long been discontinued.

Tropane alkaloids are autonomic nervous system blocking agents. The level of alkaloids in individual plants varies from day to day depending on environmental conditions and stages of plant development. This can lead to problems for people who use the plant as a narcotic as higher levels of these alkaloids can cause death instead of the intended "trip." To learn more about these alkaloids and the toxicity of Datura check out "Medical Botany: Plants Affecting Man's Health" by Walter H. Lewis, P.F. Elvin-Lewis (A Wiley-Interscience publication) (Paperback)

The active poison is oenanthotoxin. The root is particularly dangerous, as it lacks the unpleasant flavour of the foliage, but is equally toxic: the species is common in wet ditches and streamsides, and the roots are often exposed when drainage ditches are cleared. Livestock fatalities are frequent when these exposed roots are found and eaten in mistake for parsnips, one root being sufficient to kill a cow. Human fatalities are also known in these circumstances (crushed to death by the cow!).

Avoided by rabbits and common in warrens. The acrid and cathartic properties of the milky juice in the root are shared in some measure by all parts of the plant: the berries are emetic and even poisonous.

Most parts of the tree are toxic, except the bright red aril surrounding the seed, enabling ingestion and dispersal by birds. The major toxin is the alkaloid taxane. The foliage remains toxic even when wilted or dried. Horses have the lowest tolerance, with a lethal dose of 200–400 mg/kg body weight, but cattle, pigs, and other livestock are only slightly less vulnerable. Symptoms include staggering gait, muscle tremors, convulsions, collapse, difficulty breathing, coldness and eventually heart failure. However, death occurs so rapidly that many times the symptoms are missed. The wood remains poisonous after it is cut.

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See current Wildflower Common Name Index link Table for more wildflower of the UK common names - from Adder's Tongue to the Goosefoot Family - together with their names in languages from America, Finland, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Sweden.

See current Wildflower Botanical Name Index link table for wildflower of the United Kingdom (Great Britain) botanical names, from Adder's Tongue to the Goosefoot Family.

After clicking on the WILD FLOWER Common Name INDEX link to Wildflower Family Page; locate that Common name on that Wildflower Family Page, then

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